


Lost in Translation

by muse_of_mbaku



Category: Us (Movie 2019)
Genre: Angst, Black Character(s), Black Original Character, F/M, Fluff, No Smut, POC Reader Insert, PoC, a little fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 11:10:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18964066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muse_of_mbaku/pseuds/muse_of_mbaku
Summary: US movie request about Abraham learning to adjust and speak after The Un-tethering





	Lost in Translation

This man, one found mangled and floating in the bay, was an enigma. He’d obviously been sheltered, even cared for in some ways, but the wildness in his eyes was startling. But Zaida could see fear swirling in them as well. Wildness, fear, and a healthy dash of confusion. The former she had in spades. The world had gone crazy for a time, but slowly things were starting to right themselves. There was still blood being shed in the streets and you could never be quite sure if the person you were speaking to was really him or herself. Everyone had that same glazed over look, like they’d seen the inside of the sun and come back blinded. Was the person before you the real one or simply a tether trying to navigate the world, their social and language skills playing desperate catchup?

Zaida flashed her badge at one of the guards at the end of the hallway and made her way to a suite of holding rooms. Room not cells, she had to remind herself. Cells meant the people housed there were prisoners. And they were people, just not in the way that most of society would deem acceptable. She’d somehow grown a soft spot for them. The Tethered. She’d spent nights wondering how it must have felt to be trapped underground, coming to consciousness and maturity in the stunted ways the environment allowed. How it must have been to have been ignorant of the world above until one special little girl had told them of what was just out of their grasps. She knew from the reports that never seemed to leave her side for more than a few moments that his name was Abraham. That he’d been connected to Red as Gabe has been to Adelaide. He was battered and he was bruised, but he was there before her in the flesh and Zaida was doing her best to get him to speak.

She’d been doing so for weeks. The first day had been terrifying. Under heavy guard she’d entered the medical bay to find him strapped down and being treated for his injuries. There’d been so much blood, so much carnage that she’d retched and hoped they were able to save him. Life was life to her, no matter what mess you had to wade through to get to it. But now it had fallen to her to help him learn to exist in a world that wanted to study him. A world that wanted to absolve itself of his creation in order to make itself feel better about their experiment run amok. There was something in Zaida that dreaded success, knowing it would mean only the beginning of another round of confinement and confusion for him. How could he be held accountable for his crimes by laws never meant to interact with his world, which had never taken into consideration he wasn’t held to the same standards?

Zaida sat at the table across him and smiled. She found that when she let the edges of her lips curl up softly and brightened her eyes, he relaxed. She’d notice his shoulders drop and his jaw unclench. Since his arrival at the facility, he’d been fitted for glasses and it had been a minor miracle to see his world unfurl with his improved vision.

“Good Morning, Abraham.” She let her words draw out like honey. She wanted to him to hear the syllables and see the way the words left her lips.

He stared intently at her mouth as he did each morning, sometimes his moving in mimic. Sometimes there were a few scratchy grunts that escaped, nothing like her words but she could tell he was trying. This morning, after Zaida had repeated the greeting a second and third time, there was a barely audible word. And then another.

“Suuun. Morn.”

It took her a moment, but it clicked. Days ago she’d slid a card across the table, a brilliant yellow sun in the center. She’d pointed at it while greeting him. It had been Zaida’s hope that Abraham would equate the pictures with the words he seemed to enjoy more and more each day. When she talked to him softly the fear and wildness in his eyes dimmed and the interest grew. She was careful not to treat him as a child, rather just someone entering the game of life just a bit later than the rest of them. She beamed at him and felt her heart jump when the smallest hint of a grin touched his lips and he averted his eyes. 

Zaida scattered the small stack of cards over the surface of the table. 

“How are you today?” She lifted the card with a smiling woman on it. “I’m happy.”

She watched as Abraham’s eyes flitted over the options before him. He pulled two across the wood. One was of a frowning man. The other, an embracing couple. Zaida was confused. They hadn’t used the second before. The first she’d seen more than once. Those were the days she worried about his treatment or how he was faring in this gilded cage. 

“Why are you upset today?” Her brow knitted and she saw Abraham’s do the same as he tapped the card in annoyance. He was growing more and more frustrated. 

“Just tell me. However you can, okay?” 

“L…” The beginnings of the word cut short. He stopped the tapping on the card. 

“Are you sad? Did someone hurt you?” She felt anger start to spike through her. “Did they hurt you again?” 

She started to rise, but the warmth and strength of his hand covering hers stopped her movement as did the creaky “No” he managed to form. Zaida returned to her seat.

“…are you lonely?” She was almost afraid to ask. 

His head nodded in agreement, his other hand moving to cover hers. Zaida felt a spark, one she was both thrilled and ashamed by. This was new. It was gentle and it was very much unexpected. She heard grumbling behind her, the approaching footfalls of boots. A shadow appeared over her shoulder and then there was a grip and the beginnings of a warning before all hell broke loose. Zaida jolted at the clatter of the table flipping over, a flurry of cards drifting around a furious Abraham standing tall and stalking towards the man who’d touched her. Everything turned to chaos and he was pushed from her towards the exit and what she was sure would be a night of “correction”. She would not stand for it. 

“Abraham! No!” Zaida shot up from the chair and made a hasty path across the room. He struggled against the men trying to clasp handcuffs against his wrists. She stopped short, bouncing off his chest and tumbling towards the floor. With a roar, Abraham broke free and caught her before her descent was complete. He held her close to him, closely enough the men crowded towards them again. 

“It’s okay,” she tossed over her shoulder at the encroaching men. “He’s not hurting me. Let us work this out.”

Zaida was grateful for the retreating steps although she knew they were still not alone. She brought Abraham’s arms to his side, kept her fingers lightly circled around his wrists. Abraham glanced down at the contact and something in him relaxed. Zaida knew it was human touch. Kind human touch, she corrected herself. She backed away from him slowly when she felt his energy shift gears. His palm pressed into the bulk of his chest over and over again, the fear was back in his eyes. 

“Tell me,” she whispered. 

Abraham bent to the scattered cards around their feet. He gathered one and held it aloft for her. Zaida paused at the bright red of the graphic as he hovered it against his chest before moving it towards her. Abraham held it softly against her breastbone, the stylized organ was a mimic of her own beating heart. 

“Mine?” he pushed out. 

Zaida looked at the card and back to him in confusion. 

“Yours?” He tapped the card with one thick finger before letting it flutter back to the floor and gathering another. The embracing couple again. 

He bent to her height and held the card at eye level. “Us?”


End file.
